Bharat Parsana, 54, who lives in western India's city of Rajkot belongs to a well known industrialist family of the region. For the last 50 years his family has been into a well established engineering business exporting its products to 12 countries worldwide. The group turnover exceeds INR 5 billion. Being from a Patel community, the family had their own farm which was inherited from ancestors. The family also owns 20 cows passed on to them over 300 years and 10 generations.
Bharat started experimenting with total organic farming in his farm near Rajkot from his early years. At the age of 39, he went on the mission to teach cow based simple farming techniques to farmers that can increase their profits by 50%.
According to Bharat, "I have been traveling far and wide of in Gujarat especially to small villages in order to teach them simple organic farming techniques. I guarantee a 25% increase in productivity with these techniques. The organic vegetables grown with these techniques without use of any chemicals are of superior quality and farmers can sell them at 25% higher price than regular vegetables. For the last 15 years I have set out to different villages everyday. I conduct farmer meetings at these villages and also go to different farms to teach them. My farm is open for free training to anyone who desires. There have been instances of Bus-full of farmers coming for farming."
Bharat has developed simple farming techniques like spraying pure cow milk mixed with jaggery in specific proportion on plants once every 10 days and using basic manure made of castor seeds and cow dung. He also uses ingredients like cow urine, sour buttermilk, asafoetida in a custom process for making plant medicines. He takes deep interest in training farmers his techniques free of cost and then also follows up with them to find out whether they are getting results or not.
According to Bharat, milk has carbohydrate protein minerals and vitamins, while jaggery has a heavy proportion of carbohydrates. When this mixture is sprayed on plants, it acts as a booster dose for the plants to fight against germs. The pure organic vegetables that grow at Bharat’s farm near Rajkot are of such wonderful quality that most urban dwellers would have not seen or tasted such vegetables during their lifetime. People who come to the farm cannot stop eating raw vegetables directly plucked from the plant and experience their sweetness.
Suresh Bhadresiya of Gujarat state's Botad district took into farming after completing his graduation. According to Suresh, he has used techniques of organic farming guided by Bharatbhai. He is getting 25% more productivity than his other farm, where he uses regular farming techniques. The organic vegetable sells at higher cost, but requires finding a clientele that understands the value of organic produce.
Bharat has so far guided over 5000 farmers in Gujarat. All the activities by him are not meant for profit. He is thankful to his brothers and family who accept his little contribution to the family business and let him invest time and support to the mission of organic farming instead. Besides cows, his farm also has horses, dogs and several peacocks.